Flag Pole Sitta
by RogueWitch
Summary: When Veronica see's Weevil taped to the flag pole she doesn't walk away...
1. Chapter 1

Flag Pole Sitta

Part 1

It was almost like deja-vous, Weevil cut an imposing figure, even while taped naked to the flag pole at the front of Neptune High School. I was almost tempted to leave him there in vengeance for Wallace the year before. The angry bruises on his face changed my mind. I pulled out my small switch blade, the one my father had gotten for me when I started working for him, the same one I had used to cut Wallace down with.

The sound of the blade opening brought Weevil's vacant eyes to mine, catching my biting remark in my throat. He said everything I needed to know in that gaze, he world had fallen in, and I was the first friendly face that had come by; I had asked him for a million favors and now he was going to collect.

"I know you don't want to be late to class, but do you think you can wait for the bell, I feel exposed enough as it is."

"You mean?" I knew I was blatantly looking at his crotch, but it was the only way I could think of getting my full meaning across without actually finishing my question.

"It's all me, Chica." He gave me a grim smile and I shut the blade, tucking it back in my bag. I suddenly felt fiercely protective of the biker; I set my bag on the ground and sat defiantly at his feet. I felt more then saw the flash of bulbs go off around me, knowing that my stunning contribution to the yearbook this year would be again posed with a mostly naked man taped to a flag pole; I could only imagine this year's caption.

I had to wait a good ten minutes after the bell rang before everyone had left for class, by that time I had gotten comfortable in my seat in front of the biker, leaning back against his legs with a school book open in my lap. Once the last person entered the school I put my book aside and pulled my blade back out. I carefully and silently cut Weevil's hands free.

"I have a pair of sweatpants in my car; we can get the rest of that tape off at my place." I busied myself with getting my bag over my shoulder, so that I didn't have to see the rejection that I was sure that Weevil was going to give me.

"You just want to get me naked so you can take advantage of me." He pulled the tape off of his wrists making a face as the hair came off with it.

"I just want to see if your hog is as big as you say it is." I opened my trunk and rummaged around, locating the sweatpants. "They may be a bit small; I'll get you some of dad's clothes when we get home."

Weevil pulled on the pants and they clung to his legs like a second skin, the legs that I had just been leaning against so casually suddenly looked entirely too tempting.

"So you really are skipping school?" Weevil looked to me, his hand poised above the door handle waiting for conformation.

"I'll call us in." I pulled my door open and slid behind the steering wheel, trying not to watch him slither into my car. Turning on the car, I pressed play on my CD player not really ready to talk, I would wait for him to be free of the duct tape and fully clothed before I asked what had happened.

Weevil slunk low in the seat trying to keep the tape from pulling on more unpleasant places.

The ride took forever, a tension that had never been there before was suddenly thick in the convertible. I had always been very comfortable with Weevil, despite his reputation he was one of the more reliable people that I knew, but after seeing him so exposed and then in my sweatpants, suddenly he was a threat, he was someone who could hurt me, because I was attracted to him, and that tended to turn out badly for me.

Once we were back to the apartment, tensions only got higher. I showed Weevil into the bathroom, while I found some wash rags to loosen the adhesive.

"You know, when I used to do this, I would at least leave their boxers on, this stuff is a real bitch to get off and the more hair the more it hurts."

"Which is why we're going to use soap and hot water to loosen it." I handed him the wash rags and turned on the hot water in the sink. "I really don't know how much you want me to help you with this." I held up the now hot soapy rag and examined the taped area, trying to look at it objectively.

"As much as I would love to be the tough guy and tell you I don't need your help, could you loosen the tape in the back and I may need you to rip it off to, please don't be offended if I curse at you."

"Only if you promise to do it in Spanish, I need to brush up on my Spanish insults."

"Sister, I don't know if I really want you to be able to curse at me in two languages." Weevil looked profoundly uncomfortable with me kneeling behind him loosening the tape, a hot wash rag pressed against the curve of his butt. I looked up at the expanse of tattoos across his back, only one stuck out to me; it was the only one with any color, a big red heart with my best friends name in it. My curiosity was killing me, distracting me nicely from the mostly naked man I was kneeling behind.

"Did you love her?" I kept my eyes on the tape I was slowly pealing away.

"I thought I did. I was young and stupid." I would feel his eyes on me from over his shoulder.

"Why is it the only one with color?" I peeled the strip all the way off, I could hear him suck in a breath when the last inch pulled out hair. "I'm sorry."

"S'okay. It's to remind me, of what we had, and then how much it hurt when it was over. I got it colored in after she died."

"I thought about it." I moved on to the next strip, making my way down into further uncomfortable territory.

"About what?"

"Getting a tattoo to commemorate Lilly, to remember." I started to pull the strip, moistening it as I went.

"If you want, when we're done, I'll introduce you to my artist. You can talk to him, see if you want one." I knew he was just talking to distract himself and me from the increasing amount of flesh he was showing, but it got me thinking again.

"Maybe a Cowley Lily, on my ankle?" The last of the third strip came off in my hand, my technique getting better, as there was almost no hair attached to the strip.

"Or the inside of your wrist." He hissed as I pulled on the next strip, as it had been holding closed a nasty cut which started to bleed.

"Would you be offended if I put on gloves before I continue?"

"Only my pride." I used one of the dry wash rags to put pressure on the cut, having Weevil hold it in place to try to stop the bleeding.

"I'll be right back then," I stood up and coved in front of him to wash his blood off my hands, my breath caught seeing him over my shoulder, as far as the mirror went he could have been completely naked. I knew he saw me blush when the smirk appeared on his lips.

In the end, I had him sit in a hot soapy bath to get the rest of the tape off, to save both of us from having to deal with me seeing him naked, and me embarrassing myself even further. He emerged from my bathroom smelling like my lavender soap and wearing a pair of my dad's blue jeans and a Padre's t-shirt.

"I feel silly." He gestured to his clothes.

"It's a step up from the duct tape, though the jury's still out as to whither or not its better then my sweatpants."

"True, though I think the sweatpants where a different statement."

"Just try not to bleed too much on my dad's stuff; he's going to have enough questions with all the wet tape in the trash." I ushered him into the car again. "So, where is this tattoo artist that you think so highly of?"

AN: So, I totally know that I have two other stories that are just pleading to be updated... but I had to start this one... I'm not sure where its going... I'm not sure how I 'm going to handle the Veronica Duncan break up that I totally skipped by letting her leave school... but I'll figure it out... if you have any suggestions send them my way! Either way please review... it's what gets me through my super long hours at work!


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

We drove the LaBaron to the tattoo shop after first stopping off at Weevil's house to get him some real clothes, not that my dad's clothes didn't fit him, but we both agreed that he looked silly in them.

The shop had clean white walls and millions of designs plastered on the walls. The front counter was glass, and crystal clear, it displayed hundreds of different types of jewelry, some for body parts I couldn't even guess at. I had never been to a tattoo shop before, and this was differently not what I had been expecting.

A girl in jeans and a Skid Row t-shirt sat on a stool behind the counter reading the latest Us Weekly; she had bright red spiked hair and plugs in her ears, an eyebrow ring and a nose ring that sparkled in the overhead lights.

"Weevil, you look like you found the wrong end of a baseball bat." She smacked her gum when she talked to us, but her smile was pleasant. "Mikes in the back, you want me to get him?"

"Yeah, I think I have a new client for him."

"Hey, I'm Cindy." She stuck her hand out to me, her arm was covered in plastic bangles and her fingers with rings, I took her hand and her shake was firm.

"Veronica."

"I'll be right back, look around, if you need anything, Weevil can probably answer any questions you have."

I turned to face the wall filled with pictures, there where hundreds of them, butterflies and crosses, naked ladies and hearts and starts, anything I could think of was on the wall, but the flower I wanted wasn't in sight.

Weevil leaned in close to my ear, "Mike can draw your flower, V. You don't have to pick something off the wall, I actually recommend that you don't, he would rather draw you something anyway." His breath tickled the back of my neck and my ear, making a shiver run down my spine.

"I want a lily, a pretty one, Lilly wouldn't want me to get anything white, she would say it was too pure, maybe one of the magenta ones, those always stand out in a crowd; the ones that are fully opened like they are always ready to say something."

"I think that Lilly would be honored if you represented her that way."

Mike chose that moment to burst into the front of the shop. He was a skinny guy, and was positively covered in tattoos, from head to toe, or as much of him as I could see, so more arms and head, he had sleeves down his arms, one filled with Egyptian themed tattoos and the other with different horror characters and Halloween themes. His face had what I thought might be Sanskrit under his eyes, and I had never thought of it before, but on him it looked good. "Weevil, you brought a pretty girl, that's different." He grinned at me, "What can I do for you today?"

"V, here is thinking about her first tattoo, I thought that I'd bring her to you, since you've done all of mine."

"Okay, V, why don't we go back into my booth and we can talk about what you might be thinking about." Mike lead us back though a curtain and into an area of the shop that was divided up into four different booths, his was the first one on the right, and was sectioned off from the others by heavy curtains. He directed me into what looked like a dentist's chair, and Weevil took up residence holding up the wall off to one side of the booth, while Mike sat down in an office rolling chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "So, what are you thinking about?"

"Well, about two years ago my best friend was murdered. Six months ago I saw that the man who killed her was put in jail, but I don't think I'm finished with her yet. I've been thinking for a while about getting a tattoo to commemorate the time that we had together, but I've always kind of put it off, I think its time now."

"Do you know what you want? Do you want her name and the dates of her birth and death, something that symbolizes something you two shared?"

"I want a lily. I want one of those lilies that's maroon and is fully opened, something that's eye catching and loud, something that's like Lilly."

Mike turned to Weevil, "are we talking the same Lilly?"

"The one and only, she had her way with people, and she and V here where inseparable forever."

"Well, let me pull some pictures up on the computer, if there what you want, we'll talk about where you want to put it and price, and I'll draw something up for you; and while I do that, you and Chico over here can go get lunch, eat something with sugar in it, your body will burn through a lot of it while I'm working, and then come back and we'll get down to business."

"Sounds like a plan." I could feel adrenalin pumping through my veins, my hands where starting to sweat, but I couldn't wait to start.

"Okay, I'll be right back." Mike left the booth, leaving Weevil alone with me. Suddenly the tension was back, the tension that I felt in my car after I cut him down from the pole and the tension that was thick in the bathroom at my apartment. He came and sat down on the end of the dentist's chair and pushed my knees up to my chest, leaning gently against them.

"Are you ready for this?" He wasn't smiling, but his eyes where soft, letting me know I could tell him whatever it was I was thinking.

"Is it going to hurt?" My voice sounded very small, smaller then I would have liked it to sound, less of the bad-ass and more of the old Veronica.

"Not as much as you think it will. Though I got to tell you, toward the end, its not going to feel good, its probably going to suck, he really lays his shade in, I can only imagine what he does with color, since the only color I have is solid, yours is going to be chalk full of shading and color blending, and after a while that wares at the skin, but you can hold my hand the whole time."

"Promise?"

"Promise," I could see the laughter in his eyes, "now where's the hard ass, Veronica that never lets anything bother her, because she's really the one who wants to get this tattoo, pastel Veronica really needs to go away, she's freaking me out."

"I'll work on it." I lay back in the chair enjoying the feeling of Weevil's weight against my legs, "Are you going to freak out if I ask you a weird question?"

"Do you ask any other kind of question?"

"How am I supposed to get lunch down with all these god damned butterflies fluttering around in my stomach? I mean seriously, it's like the entire butterfly house from the San Diego Zoo decided that my digestive tract was the happening place to be." Weevil threw his head back and laughed. "I'm completely serious, there's no way anything else is going in there, it's totally full."

"You stomach'll calm down in a little while, its just nerves. The butterflies will find someone else to bother, and all will be right in the world again." He patted me on the leg just below where his shoulders where resting, and it sent lightning bolts through my body. I had never really looked at Weevil, sure we had spent plenty of time together, and I knew he was my friend and on occasion I had noticed that he was attractive, but I had never really noticed him in this kind of way, where my body felt too warm, and I knew my ears where turning pink, and all I wanted was for him to touch me again. It hadn't been that long since Duncan left, and I wasn't sure if I was ready to be having feelings like this again, but then here they where, right in my face screaming for me to do something about them.

Before I could do anything about the new bigger butterflies that Weevil's presence was causing Mike came back with several computer printouts of lilies to show me. One of them was a pink lily, almost purple, not quite maroon, but still a great color, that was facing you head on, fully bloomed, all six of its petals where totally open and screaming for attention, and the inside of the flower, while beautiful looked delicate, it was perfect.

"This ones perfect." I pointed to the one I had been looking at; Weevil took a look and nodded.

"Okay, well depending on the level of detail you want its probably going to have to be at least this big." The picture was about four inches by four inches, "I'm going to suggest either putting it at the small of your back, or at the curve of your hip, you could also put it on one of your shoulder blades, I would avoid putting it in the center of your back though, just because that would look out of proportion. Now, if you don't mind loosing some detail, I can shrink it down some to fit it on your ankle, but that's really your call, I think it would look better this size."

"I agree. I like it the way it is and Lilly would want to be seen, I think I'll go with the right shoulder." I was definitely going to have to break this to dad gently before he saw it, he was not a fan of the tattoo, and this one would be pretty easily visible.

"Alright then, you two get out of here, Weevil, sugar her up, I'll get to drawing, and I'll see you back in about an hour."

We walked out of the shop and the butterflies seemed to increase in size, and then magically disappear. We walked a bit down the boardwalk, and into a small diner, took up seats and the counter, and waited to be served. Suddenly all I could think about was a root beer float, a cheeseburger and maybe a chance at touching the guy sitting next to me again, if the hand holding at the shop went well later, perhaps I could upgrade it to a little kissing, we'd see how the day went.


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

Part 3

Lunch was almost silent; neither of us really knew what to say to the other. Sure, we had been friends for a while, but our friendship usually extended only as far as mutual back scratching, and we had both done that for the day; I had cut him down from the flag pole, and he had promised to hold my hand while I got my tattoo, this sitting together and eating lunch thing was new, and on top of that, I had just realized how very attractive my mutual back scratchy friend actually was.

I couldn't help but watch him over the top of my root beer float, while he concentrated far too hard on his burger. It only took him a moment before he caught me staring at him, and I could see that glint in his eye, that glint that always came around when he knew he had caught me doing something I didn't want anyone to know that I do.

"Like what you see, Chica?" He put his burger down on the plate and his lips pulled into what has become a very familiar leer.

"You, masticating a burger, oh, yeah, Weevil, you know just how to get a girl all hot and bothered." I deadpan, what he doesn't know can't hurt him.

"You're staring offal hard for someone who isn't interested."

"It's like watching a train wreck, you want to look away, you just can't."

"Right, that's why you've let all the ice cream melt in your float. I'm not as dumb as I look, V." He had a point there, and when I looked down at my ice cream, it had all melted, I must have been watching him for much longer then I though I had been. I pout at my float, in hopes that the ice cream will feel sorry for me and spontaneously become frozen again, which it doesn't and I'm not surprised.

"You're pretty, so sue me. Is there suddenly a state law against looking at you, cause if there is, I'm sure there are plenty of other pretty guys that can catch my attention." I look at him right in the eye, not wanting him to know that the fact that he caught me bothers me in the least, though I'm not sure if it's working, he has had an uncanny way of being able to see through me, which is a little disturbing, and also kind of nice.

"You can look, you can even touch if you feel so inclined, but remember, V, you break it, you buy it." He looked at me one last time before picking up his burger again. "Your pretty, too; think it's in the rules that I look at you, if you look at me?"

I stretch my arms over my head, stretching my entire body out, while keeping one eye on Weevil to see if he's watching, which he is. "Look all you want, baby, there's nothing but pretty over here, and I'm willing to share." 

He smiles and goes back to his burger, and with that, all the tension that has been plaguing our lunch is gone, though I have to deal with the fact that my float is also gone, I think that it was worth the sacrifice.

On the way back to the tattoo shop, Weevil walks closer to me then he did on the way to lunch, his arm brushing mine and we make out way down the boardwalk, and I can't help but wonder if this attraction thing might go both ways, sure he said I was pretty, but he has said a lot of things to me over the years, most of which its pretty safe to ignore. I get my answer when a surfer guy skates by on roller blades, which by the way is so nineteen ninety, and not in the least bit sexy anymore, especially in a wetsuit, and whistles at me; Weevil puts his arm around my shoulders and glares daggers at the surfer, who then manages to not see an oncoming trash can, and wipes out.

"My hero."

"He wasn't good enough for you anyway, look how dumb he was, and I think you need a change of pace from the surfer crowd, you need a man who isn't quite so waterlogged in the brain."

"And you are?"

"Why don't we find out?" Before I can say anything to that comment, Weevil leans down and captures my lips with his, giving me a chaste, but very nice kiss. His lips are full and soft, and rub against mine in a way that makes me want nothing more but to drown in them. Before he can pull away, I turn into him, putting one of my hands on the back of his neck and pull him more firmly into me, opening my mouth just enough to suck in his lower lip. The arm he has around me tightens and he snakes his other arm around me waist, pulling me as close to him as I can get. He deepens the kiss, licking the seam of my lips until I open them for him, and thrusts his tongue into my mouth. I can't help but let off a small groan, as his tongue battles mine for dominance over the kiss. His hand slips into my hair, while the other rubs circles in my back, and when we can't take it any more, we break apart, resting our foreheads against each other.

I keep my eyes closed and I breathe in the scent of him, leather and motor oil, and Old Spice, and the rich scent of earth and man, which is completely intoxicating. "Yep, you're good enough, as long as you do that a lot." I lean up and kiss him briefly again, before pulling back just enough to look at him. His eyes have gone dark, with promises of more kisses in the future, and more then kisses, if that's what I want.

"Oh, V, I'm pretty sure I can deliver on that."

"Good. But, you do know that this means you're going to have to come and meet my dad, and not in a hands cuffed behind your back kind of way." 

I can feel him tense up when I say this, and I'm not entirely sure how to take it. He looks down at his feet, and lets his arms settle on my hips. "You want to bring me home to meet your dad?"

"Why wouldn't I, I like bring home the guys I'm seeing to my dad, okay, 'like' is an overstatement, more like I'm required to by Mars law, but you're a vast improvement on Logan, and I'm pretty sure he didn't like Duncan very much at the end. Actually, I think the only guy he liked that I went out with was Deputy Leo."

"You went out with the cop?"

"Not for long."

"So, you're seeing me?"

"Only if you're seeing me, I like you, and you're a good kisser, and what would be so wrong with it, plus, when one of us needs a favor, it will be much easer to get to the other, no more waiting until school the next day."

"You're not going to go around calling me your boyfriend, are you, cause, I think people will look at you funny."

"So what if they do, people look at me funny all the time, it's kinda what they do." I step back into the circle of his arms and let his lock around me. I am completely aware of the fact that we are standing in the middle of the busiest boardwalk in Neptune, but I am in no way ashamed of standing here. I lean up and kiss him again, this time running my tongue along his lips, hoping to start another mind blowing kiss, hoping that he's done with is questions, and will deal with everything else as it comes, later. He tightens his arms around me again, and kisses me properly, before pulling away and leading me back into the tattoo shop.


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4

Part 4

Mike had finished my drawing by the time that Weevil and I got back into the shop, and the butterflies came back full force, like that had just been waiting for me, just inside the door to the tattoo studio, waiting for me to walk back through the door and realize that in a matter of moments there was going to me a needle in my body putting ink into in permanently.

Mike lead the two of us back to his booth and handed me a sheet to wrap around myself, then instructed me to take off both my shirt and my bra while he and Weevil waited outside the curtain. Even though I knew that they couldn't see me, I suddenly felt very exposed, the only thing hiding my body was a bed sheet, which was huge, and draped around me ridiculously, I felt like I was leaving someone's bedroom after a particularly bad night of drunken sex, when they came back into the room.

"Okay, Veronica, I want you to stand with your back to me. Stand as naturally and as relaxed as you can while I put the stenciled on." Mike put something on the back of my shoulder, then shaved the area, which was the strangest sensation that I had ever felt, then rubbed something over the shaved area and pushed my shoulders square. Once he was satisfied that he had me standing straight he put a stencil on my back and pressed it down, waited a moment, and then pealed it off. "Now, look in the mirror over there, and make sure you like where I put it."

I clutched the sheet to my breasts while I made my way across the small room, trying not to trip over the excess fabric that was bunched around my feet. I turned with my back to the mirror and looked over my shoulder. On my right shoulder blade was a purple outline of a lily, it was cocked just slightly to the side, as if it was looking at you, and wondering what you where going to do next. I had to hold my breath to keep a tear from running down my cheek, and all I could do was nod at Mike to let him know that I was happy with how it looked.

"Good, now I want you to lay down on the chair with your feet at the head rest and your head at the foot, I know it sounds strange, but this way your back will be as flat as possible, and it will be easer for me to work." I lay down, arranging the sheet around myself, and then let Mike arrange the sheet again, so that he could have better access to my back. Weevil dragged a chair in from the lobby and sat in front of me, sitting backwards on his chair, with the dentist chair I was sitting in raised up, he was right at eye level to me, and he held out his hand for me to take.

"You're going to do great, V." He smiled at me, not a smirk or a leer, but a real smile, then leaned in and kissed me on my forehead and sat back. Mike was busying himself behind me, and I really didn't want to look at what he was doing. For all the bad-assness I give off, I didn't want to see the needles, or anything else that was going to come anywhere near my skin. Instead Mike talked to Weevil, showing him that the needle came out of a sealed bubble package, that it was completely sterile, he offered to show him the auto clave that was used to sterilize all the equipment that they use in the shop, but Weevil had seen it all before, and had been to this shop on many occasions. Once he was all set, I could hear him testing his machine, it sounded disturbingly like a dentists drill, and I closed my eyes, and put my head down, letting Weevil squeeze my hand, before I felt Mike's hands on my back, pulling at my skin.

"Now, I'm just going to do a small section, and let you feel what its going to be like, I want you to take normal breaths, be sure to keep breathing, I don't want you passing out on me." I nodded my head and took a nice long breath. "Okay, here we go." He stretched my skin out, and I could feel the first bite of the needle and started to relax, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, it felt like someone was running a mechanical pencil over my skin, it stung, but it was a pain that I could definitely live with, especially with the out come that it was going to bring.

An hour and a half later, I wasn't feeling quite as good about the mechanical pencil that was stabbing me in the back; it was starting to feel like it was on fire. Mike had switched needles, and was using one, which he had showed me, with more needles and a larger tip, and was coloring in the lily, which had long since been fully outlined. Between the whipping of the ink off the surface of my skin, and the constant trauma that the needle was causing, I was really starting to not like the process at all, but Mike and Weevil both assured me that it was almost over. Mike offered to let me take a break, but I declined, knowing that it would suck all the more if I took time and then went back to it, it was better to just get it all over with at once. 

Another half and hour, and tears stinging at the corners of my eyes, Mike pronounced that he was finished. He placed a paper towel on my back and sprayed something cool over it, which felt exceptionally good on my overly heated skin.

"Alright, I put some witch hazel on you tattoo, it will draw some of the blood out of the skin, so that it will look a little better when you get up and look at it. I just want you to lay there for about ten minutes, and then we'll clean you up, bandage you and you can go talk to Cindy about payment." Mike stood up, stripped off his gloves and threw them in the trash can. He started to clean up the area behind me, and I closed my eyes, and just let myself relax.

"See, I told you, you would do just fine." Weevil squeezed the hand he was still holding, which was starting to go a bit numb from the position I was in, I squeezed back, and tried to shift positions, though the space I was working with was pretty limited. The arm that was under my head felt like dead weight, and my shoulders where killing me from being in an awkward position for two hours.

"I feel like my back is on fire." I didn't open my eyes, but I could feel the smirk that was on Weevil's face. "Don't look at me like that, you've had a lot of these, this is my first one, I'm aloud to complain."

"Okay, but when you beg me to bring you back here for your next one, you don't get to say anything when I make fun of you for all the whining that you're doing now." He brushed the hair on my head in soothing strokes, and I relaxed even further, feeling almost like I was going to fall asleep.

"I'm so tired." My body felt beyond worn out, and I hadn't really done anything at all.

"It's the adrenalin, you go through a lot of it while your getting a tattoo, the body reacts to the trauma its going through, its why it doesn't hurt as much as you would think it would." 

"Okay, just wake me up when its time to go home." 


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5

Part 5

I dropped Weevil off at his grandmother's with the promise of a ride to school the next day, since his bike, the bike that I loved to ride on the back of, was now at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. He slid out of the car after placing a soft kiss on my lips, and told me that it was just to tide me over until the next day.

I sat at a red light, my fingers brushing over my lips, and I couldn't help but smile; it was an unexpected turn of events, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. Now, my next step would be to tell my father.

Dad liked Duncan, or at least he had until Duncan started living alone in a suite at the Neptune Grande, and I started spending more and more time over there; I couldn't even imagine what dad's reaction was going to be when I told him that I was now seeing the ex-leader of the PCH bike club, the guy that he didn't even like me to tutor in math, because it was smartening up the criminal element. My hope was that dad would see the X in ex-gang member as a sign that Weevil was a good guy, or possibly the ridiculous grin on my face, and decide to give him a chance.

The apartment was quiet when I got home; dad was off in some dusty state tracking down some bail jumper, so it was just me and Back-up, who was lazing about on the couch, looking for all the world like a lump instead of the attack dog he was supposed to be. I have a pit-bull for a reason, protection, the only thing that Back-up is really good for is a nice growl, maybe a nip or two, then he is perfectly happy to lick you to death for a good tummy rub, some guard dog.

My next task was to clean my new tattoo, I had been given very specific instructions by Mike, who after soaking my lily in witch hazel had then cleaned it with green soap and rubbed in A and D ointment before putting a bandage over it. He had told me not to leave the bandage on for more then two hours, then once the bandage was off, to clean the tattoo with anti-bacterial soap until the skin didn't feel slimy, his words, and let it air dry before rubbing in more A and D, just enough that the skin looked like it had lotion on it, not enough to make it greasy. My first problem lay in reaching the entire tattoo, since I skipped the whole contortionist part of gymnastics when I was younger. I spent about ten minutes trying to reach the whole thing in the mirror before giving up and calling Wallace to help me. I felt like a total dork having to ask my best friend to come over and wash my back because I couldn't reach, but it needed to be done, and no amount of hopping up and down was going to make my arms any longer.

Wallace no longer bothered to knock on the door, he had learned that it was just easer to come in, because half the time I didn't hear the door, and the other half I just yelled for him to come in anyway; he did still announce himself upon entering the house, though.

"Veronica! Where are you?" Wallace called when I wasn't immediately visible from the front door, which, why would I be, when I told him I would be in the bathroom.

"I'm in my bathroom, Wallace." Duh.

"That's cool; I'll just wait out here." I hear the TV flip on and I roll my eyes.

"Wallace, I need you in here, that's the whole reason I called."

"What could you possibly need me for in the bathroom?" The TV went off again, and I could hear him come into the bedroom and shut the door, though he didn't come into the bathroom, even through the door was open.

"If you come in here, I can show you." I really was getting tired of this game, and was ready to just go out there and pull him into the bathroom, though I did feel a bit embarrassed about the fact that I needed him in the first place.

"Did you fall in, because if you did, don't you think that Mac would have been a better choice for you to call and help you." Wallace was trying to contain his laughter; I could tell by the way he was speaking almost entirely through his nose.

"I didn't fall in, Wallace, seriously, that hasn't happened since I was like two, and I just wanted to know if you could really flush yourself, like dad told me you could. Now get your skinny ass in here before I come out there and get you."

Wallace came to the open door and looked in, I was standing with my back to the mirror, my tank top off one shoulder so that I could wash the tattoo without having to deal with the strap, and I was soaked from trying to fling water over my shoulder. "Okay, you got a tattoo, why did I have to come in the bathroom."

"I need help washing it, I can't reach." I could feel me ears turning pink.

"And you only just thought of this?"

"Well, it didn't really occur to me until I couldn't reach, I mean it's my shoulder, but it's further down then my fingers will go."

"Turn around, I'll wash it." Wallace proceeded to wash my tattoo, as per the instructions I was given, then he put the ointment on it once it had dried and I had changed my top. "Now, what are you going to do the next time you have to clean it?"

"Call you again?"

"Or?"

"Call someone else?"

"Who was the genius that let you get something that you had to take care of for two weeks in the first place, how about they help you clean the thing."

"Some how I don't think dad would be too keen on Weevil stopping by three times a day to help me wash my back, especially after I tell him we're dating." There, I did it, I dropped the bomb, I told my best friend that the guy that had taped him to a flag pole at the beginning of last year was now my boyfriend, I stood there and waited for the fall out.

"That's great, V. I like him much better then Echolls, and Duncan was really just so boring."

"You're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad, he's a decent guy, he's always got your back, which means I don't have to be watching it 24/7, and if your watching him, he can't possibly get into that much trouble."

"But he taped you to a flag pole."

"And someone taped him to a flag pole today, and some cute blonde cut us both down, and she's my best friend."

"Wallace, are you getting mushy on me."

"Just telling you the facts, V."

We left my room after that, I felt pretty good about telling people about my new relationship, not that I was embarrassed about it, but more worried about their reactions, I had had to deal with the fall out of dating Logan, and I didn't want to have to do that with Weevil, I really just wanted to enjoy it. Wallace and I spent the remainder of the day watching stupid cartoons on the TV until he announced that his mom would worry if he didn't get home, and I snuggled up into bed and fell asleep, knowing that I must still have a stupid grin on my face, because I really was just that happy.


End file.
